As with previous years, it’s time to openly publish my conflict of interests, board memberships, advisory board positions, and government activities so that anyone reading my opinions has full transparency.

The federal government has made financial disclosure very easy with the Sunshine Act.

Since 1999, Patientsite, the BIDMC shared record between doctor and patient, has enabled patients to track blood pressure, glucometer readings, activities of daily living, mood, pain etc. but few patients have used those features.

On Monday afternoon my wife was speaking with my 82 year old father-in-law, when he began speaking in word salad – not slurring his words, but clearly speaking words that made no sense. He had no numbness or weakness, no confusion, and no change in consciousness. After 5 minutes all symptoms resolved.

Over the past few months, Beth Israel Deaconess has been exploring the use of wearable computing.

In the Emergency Department we’ve been evaluating an early unit of Google Glass, a high tech pair of glasses that includes a video camera, video screen, speaker, microphone, touch pad, and motion sensor.

At last week’s Meaningful Use Workgroup meeting, Leslie Kelly Hall and I reviewed the HIT Standards Committee recommendations for patient generated healthcare data from online applications and devices.